Ford to Resurrect Taurus to Help Sales

[Admin]

Is this a smart move? I think it's questionable...I kind of think that it prolly won't help. One reason being we're in a different time period, Americans think differently and technology has changed. When Americans think of Taurus, they don't think of a very sophisticated car. Most Americans are looking for a very sophisticated car like the Japanese auto manufacturers have. Sophisticated , so people tell me! Personally I think they look and sound like a piece of shit! I think Ford has to do more than just change a name of a car. They need to change the opinions of what Americans think of their cars.

Originally Posted by Tom Krisher

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. might hope resurrecting the once-mighty Taurus name will help reverse lackluster sales and a lack of desirable cars. One analyst says it's a good start but the automaker has a long way to go. Ford will rename its slow-selling Five Hundred model the Taurus, a name Ford previously had used for a car that became the nation's top-seller, two company officials said Tuesday.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition they not be identified by name because the official announcement had not yet been made. The announcement is expected to be made Wednesday at the Chicago Auto Show.


"It addresses one of the issues Ford has: With all the name changes, it lost a lot of the consumers," said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with Boston-based Global Insight. "(New Ford Chief Executive) Alan Mulally is not an industry guy, but he is a smart businessman. He's sort of looked from the outside (and said) ... `What are you doing, and why did you discontinue the name?'
"But in the end, it's about product. They still have a tremendous amount of work to do on their product lineup."

The Taurus, considered by some the car that saved Ford, revolutionized the way autos look and feel when it was introduced in 1985.
The Dearborn-based automaker ceased production of the Taurus in October after 21 years and sales of nearly 7 million, perplexing many industry analysts and former Ford executives who said the brand name had great value.
Ford spokesman Jim Cain would not confirm that the Taurus name will be brought back, but said Mulally has been interested in the Taurus ever since arriving from aviation giant Boeing Co. last year.

Cain said the company would make news at the Chicago Auto Show, but he would not say what it was.

"It will be announced in Chicago, whatever it is. I'm not confirming or denying," he said.

The Five Hundred, built on Volvo architecture, sold moderately well in 2005, its first full year on the market, but sales nose-dived last year from almost 108,000 to about 84,000.

It will get a new, more powerful engine and some cosmetic updates for the 2008 model year, when the name change likely is to take place. The new version will be in showrooms this summer, company officials have said.
The Taurus, called a "jellybean" or "flying potato" when it first was introduced because of its futuristic curved design, was an immediate hit, with buyers snapping up more than 263,000 in 1986, its first full year on the market.
It became the best-selling car in America in 1992 with sales of nearly 410,000, unseating the Honda Accord just as Japanese imports were starting to take hold in the U.S., and it held the top spot for five straight years until it was supplanted by the Toyota Camry in 1997. Even near death last year, it sold 175,000 models in September, mainly to rental car and other fleet buyers.
Ford also sold another 2 million Mercury Sables, the Taurus' nearly identical twin. It is likely that the Five Hundred's Mercury counterpart, the Montego, will be renamed the Sable.

The company was losing billions in the early 1980s when Taurus was just an idea. Philip Caldwell, chief executive at the time, challenged designers and engineers to come up with a radically different car that would return Ford to profitability.

Ford is overdue for some of that radical rethinking, Lindland said, not the tweaks planned for the Five Hundred.

"The Five Hundred was a huge letdown in terms of styling and proportion -- all the more reason to be a little bit out on the edge, like the original Taurus was," she said. "In an ideal world, Ford would never have even bothered with the Five Hundred. They would have just redesigned the Taurus."

Last year, Ford lost $12.7 billion, and it was forced to mortgage its factories to set up a credit line of more than $20 billion as it undergoes a radical restructuring plan.

The Taurus, redesigned in 1996, became a symbol of the company's current ills. It was left almost unchanged for 10 years with little advertising support as the company focused on high-profit trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Ford, left with few desirable cars, was caught flat-footed this year when consumer tastes shifted away from trucks. Its sales dropped 8 percent last year as buyers went to more fuel-efficient models made mainly by Asian brands.

Mulally, tapped to rescue the company, helped revolutionize product development at Boeing in part by taking inspiration from the broad, team-based approach Ford used to create the Taurus in the 1980s.

Ironically, those ideas failed to catch on at the automaker, some industry observers say.

Mulally, who in the 1990s managed development of Boeing's enormously successful 777, applied the Taurus ideas to that project.

Ford shares rose 21 cents, or 2.52 percent, to close at $8.54 on the New York Stock Exchange

Associated Press Writer Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.

[Admin]

I mean I can't tell you how many times I've heard people tell me my car has bad gas mileage, gets horrible traction, crappy handling, not as fast as foreign cars, so on and so on. Starting to get really old if you ask me!!! Most people don't even know the true specs of each American Car. They are just guessing, listening to the media, and saying what other people say.

[archimedes8989]

I blame two parties, the media and the manufacturers. The media is all over bashing American cars for no reason, I mean car and driver also said the Ferarri and 911 were better than the new Z06 when comparing the three, even though the Corvette had better acceleration and breaking. It was the superior car in most catagories, the article said it was "better on paper". WHAT HELL DOES THAT MEAN. If you beat a car in the quarter mile, you dont loose because of a lack of style points or something. It makes no sense. The media feels that a car has to be japanese to be reliable, and for performance, it has to be european. A while ago, Toyota settled a suit filed by over 7 million toyota product buyers from 97-02 who engines went due to mechanical deffects (Toyota tried to say it was due to owners neglect, which is why it went to court). If that had been one of the big three, the media would have been all over it. Also, lets give GM some credit inparticular...they have the best warranty you can get (5 years or 100k miles). The second problem, is the big three, in my opinion, were somewhat complacent and only had to worry about each other, never thinking that Japenese and European cars could pose a huge threat. Well they both are, and it is their fault for not taking them seriously. They let down their country and their buyers in that sense. So while I do love American manufacturers, lets not be too sympathetic. Also, their reliabilty has really gone up over the last 5 years. I think because they realized the threat Toyota and Honda posed and realized they needed to step it up. I might even go as far as to say that people who run the big three sold out their country and their people. They were more interested in maximizing profits rather than building the best damn car they could. Regardless, I still want them to succeed because I love their cars and I love this country.

[Admin]

I totally agree with you on the sympathetic thing!

Both Ford and GM counted on Truck and SUVs to sell. I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if gas prices go up, less trucks and SUVs will be sold. Everyone knew gas prices weren't going down, just like anything else in America, prices have been increasing. GM and Ford should of known better, management gets payed some big bucks to figure stuff like this out.


Still though, I would never sell out my own country and go buy a rice burner. Even if it costs $10k less. Cars are an image, just like what you wear when you go out. I'm not materialistic, but I watch what I wear when I go to work or go to a party. I like to reflect that I am proud of my country and love to drive American Muscle. I just could never see myself drive down the road in one of them.


I guess that's why a good portion of people in the U.S. are overweight. They don't seem to care about the long run. They don't look at the big picture. I think a lot of things relate to one another. It's just like what Jack Roush said link

A lot of people say that certain things have their ups and downs, I don't know man, I don't remember GM or Ford every hurting like this before.

[archimedes8989]

yeah, I'm way more concerned about Ford though. They have a bad rep. Atleast their truck buyers are so loyal. They do make a pretty good truck. I used to work at a car dealership and when people were looking to trade in their ford cars that were around 01 and newer, they all seemed to be pretty happy with them. So, I dont know why Ford gets such a bad rep for its products. Haha, its not just among foreign car owners either though. The Chrysler and GM guys knock ford all the time "oh...you got a ferd..." Its like Ford vs. the rest of the world haha. Youre either with them or against them. And most people seem to be against them. I like them just fine though.

[78KingCobra]

at work today, a customer had a malibu, and it had some intake problem or something like that, and the customer said that he did some research and ehar many malibus have this problem. and the other guy said that it is true, the customer then said 'thats what i get for buying american i guess.' i really wanted to just interrupt and tell this customer that the quality in american cars is the same, if not superior, as any other auto manufacturer. consumer reports said so themselves.
i heard this saying somewhere, i forgot where though.
if something breaks on a foriegn car, its 'maintence'
if something breaks on an american car, its 'repairs'

also, i never liked the looks of taurus' the five hundred sounds more sophisticated, and i really like the looks of them as well. i dont see why they aren't selling. i would love to own the awd version, black on black.

[archimedes8989]

Five hundreds are really nice looking cars. I think they look great. I think people who maybe would be buying them are buying Camrys, its been the top selling car 9 of the last 10 years. I think American cars are way better than people give them credit for, but I dont know if I would go as far to say that they are superior to some other manufacturers. While they both have their own unique issues, Toyota and Honda engines both have better longevity than American manufacturers. I dont like it (nor would I get one), but that is how I feel. I guess you could say, I think that for reliability American cars are better than most, but not better than all. Lastly, can someone please exlain to me about some American cars being produced in Mexico and Canada. I hear this sometimes, but I dont know much about it. Who manufactures cars over there?